History Main / InfantImmortality

* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', children are just just as likely to die as adults...[[FateWorseThanDeath or become ravenous zombies if they end up infected with the Plague of Undeath]]. The senseless deaths of children play a plot point as watching an innocent child die in the hands of merciless thugs and being unable to stop it is what eventually prompts Bishop [[KnightTemplar Arbriel Conrad]] to stray from the Path of Light and join the [[ReligionOfEvil Totenkopfs]] with the intention of "purging" of the world from those who in his view don't deserve to live in it.

* In Cormac [=McCarthy=]'s masterpiece ''TheRoad'', the two main characters come upon a campfire abandoned by cannibals. A baby has been left roasting on a spit.

* ''{{Runaways}}'': [[spoiler: Gert]] dies, becoming one of the first teen superheroes to do so.

* ''BattleAngelAlita'': In addition to the CrapSackWorld of The Scrapyard where villains have no qualms about killing children, there's also the [[IAmAHumanitarian infant-meat]]-fancying Venusians and the [[{{Immortality}} "Methuzalized"]] space colonists who regard "the next generation as a threat, not a promise" and regularly send death squads after children. There's also the ChildSoldiers of Jeru/Ketheres, who Alita and her new friends from Mars try to save a day too late, and the orphans on the Space Karate guy's planet.

* In the original ''Film/DawnOfTheDead'', two zombie children attack one of the police officers as the party tries to refuel their helicopter. Both are shot at point-blank range.

** In the beginning of the film, it is a very young child that [[spoiler: attacks the main character and her husband in their bedroom.]] Even Romero averted this trope in the 1969 ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead'', where the young Cooper girl is in the basement, ill. [[spoiler: She eventually turns into a zombie and kills her own mother using a spade, which is shown by silhouette.]]

* ''WomanInTheMoon'' includes a young stowaway on the moon rocket who doesn't get injured during liftoff in spite of his lack of restraints, and is narrowly missed during a gunfight. ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' features a ''horde of children'' trapped in a flooding underground city, '''all''' of whom are saved at the very last minute. (In the book, however, it's implied that at least a few of them drown.)

* In ''JapaneseSpiderMan'', in which adult characters are rarely spared from tragic deaths for the hero to angst over, one can always be sure that cute kids whose lives are in danger will always be spared. Moreover, one episode featured a heroic dog who was [[ShootTheDog shot]] and [[SlowMotionFall fell hundreds of feet]] off a dam. Cut to [[OldYeller tearjerker scene]] of the dog lying in the river... his owner calls and the dog struggles to his feet and limps over... and five minutes later, the dog is completely well again.
** Elsewhere in the {{Toku}}satsu genre, the earlier ''KamenRider'' series, which had far less problem offing random civilians in good-sized numbers to show how bad the MonsterOfTheWeek and his plan are than more recent series, have so many instances of death - in ''so'' many scary-despite-[[SpecialEffectsFailure Special-Effects-Failure]] forms - instantly taking adults but only hovering menacingly in the direction of children (who are snatched out of the way by Riders) it's hard to pick the best. However, one time in ''KamenRiderSkyrider,'' a child infected by something that had disintegrated everyone else affected by it [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse is not seen after]] the woman who'd been carrying her a second ago was kidnapped. By all rights that means she's dead, but we didn't see it.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends''. One of the playable champions is Annie, [[EnfantTerrible the Dark Child]], and you can score a kill on her like on any other enemy.

** TheWalkingDead as a whole is rather notorious for this. In one scene, [[GentleGiant T-Dog]] is searching through cars for supplies, and then he searches through one car with a baby seat in the back. The seat is coated with blood and bits of flesh. [[NightmareFuel He's as freaked out by this sight as quite a lot of viewers]].

* In ''MiraiNikki'', AnyOneCanDie, even children. The [[spoiler: 4 year old Reisuke]] is killed by Yuno, and later on [[spoiler: Yukki's 14 year old friends are all gunned down as well.]]

* RealLife [[AnyoneCanDie has the annoying habit of letting anyone die]] [[spoiler: even children]]

** Historically, many forms of child labor were not only abusively grueling, but downright dangerous. Children were preferred for mining or some kinds of factory work because they or their hands could fit into small spaces, often spaces that were surrounded with crumbling rockfaces or industrial machinery with NoOshaCompliance.

* In 1969, a group of Viet Cong attacked a girls' school in South Vietnamese territory. The teachers and girls -some as young as six- were raped and murdered. American and South Vietnamese forces followed the trail and caught up with the culprits close to the Cambodian border. It did ''not'' end well for the VC.

* In some versions of ''SupermanII'', there is the infamous "He was just a boy!" "He will never be a man." scene, which [[KickTheDog cements Ursa as evil in a big way]].

* In some versions of ''SupermanII'', there is the infamous "He was just a boy!" "He will never be a man." scene.

* In the BigFinishDoctorWho audio drama ''Bloodtide'', the bad guys release a virus that will only kill ''adult'' humans. Subverted in that the bad guys [[spoiler: are [[ImAHumanitarian humanitarians]]]], and later averted in that the good guys [[spoiler: simply abandon them to [[FridgeLogic die of inevitable starvation]]]].

* ''Baby's Day Out''. A bloody ''construction site''.

** Played straight with Baby William at every turn. Either Scully is attacked by a giant slug that threatens to abort him ("Roadrunners"), Scully has a placental abruption ("Empedocles"), somebody wants to make sure he isn't born ("Deadalive"), someone evil wants kidnap him at birth for evil purposes ("Essence/Existence"), a crazy cult actually ''does'' kidnap him ("Provenance/Providence"), or he's injected with an unknown substance to cure him of his alien-ness ("William"). And through all of this there's not even a scratch on him. He's one tough little guy.

* In the ''Warcraft'' novel, ''Literature/{{Arthas}}'', Jaina Proudmoore, the tile characters on-again, off-again LoveInterest, suggests that [[TheVirus undead Plauge]] might not [[OnlyFatalToAdults effect kids the same as adults.]] [[spoiler:It was then defied by Arthas, who made it clear that [[MoralEventHorizon he was going to kill every last person in Stratholme - adults and children alike.]]]] Luckily, we never see THAT ugly tidbit in the games.

* Averted horrifically (though off-camera) in ''Session 9''.

* ''WalkingWithDinosaurs'' and its spinoffs avert this hard. The first episode of ''WalkingWithDinosaurs'' has a litter of prehistoric mammals ''[[OffingTheOffspring eaten by their own parents]]''. For pure terror, however, the first episode of ''Walking With Beasts'' shows a baby terror bird that is still hatching when it is devoured by ants.

* In [[http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/ask-thatguy/521-ask-thatguy-episode-43 episode 4.3]] of the ''WebVideo/AskThatGuyWithTheGlasses'' segment of ''ThatGuyWithTheGlasses'', he is asked what the plot of a movie with no cliches would be. He responds: "I would say, 2 1/2 hours of blowing up a baby. Think about it: have you ever seen a baby blow up in a movie before?"

* In TheMovie of ''VForVendetta'', we see a girl of about ten shot by a police officer, who is presumably killed by the people who see it. (She is seen at the end, yes, but so are all the others who died in the movie).

* The reason why there aren't any children in ''{{Half-Life}} 2'' - so they can't be killed. The game designers turned it at their advantage though: the childless city was explained in-game by a "suppression field" which prevents certain protein chains necessary for embryonic development from forming, according to Doctor Kleiner. There's a great atmospheric moment at the start of the game, when you pass by a playground and, if you look at the deserted swing and the broken doll on the ground, you can hear a distant, fading kid's laughter.
** Amusingly lampshaded once [[spoiler: the suppression field goes down - Kleiner suggests via broadcast that "now would be an excellent time for procreation". This as the City 17 Citadel's reactor is going critical and most people are fleeing to refugee camps in the country. Riiight.]]
*** The rebel's comments are even funnier. "Wait. Is Dr. Kleiner really telling everyone to...get busy?" "Isn't he your dad?"